The microbrew movement’s island roots

I had the chance to talk with former islander and microbrewery
pioneer Will Kemper last week.

I was working on a story (read
it by clicking here) about Kitsap County’s beer brewing
history, which apparently had its start with Port Orchard’s Silver
Springs Brewery in the early ’30s. After Silver Springs was
purchased out and shipped away, Kitsap was brewery-less until
Kemper teamed with the Thomas family of Seattle to form Thomas
Kemper Brewery on Day Road in 1984.

Now best known for its old-fashioned sodas, the Thomas Kemper
brand was one of the first of the microbreweries to sprout up in
the 1980s. Only Redhook, Hale’s Ales and Hart’s predated Thomas
Kemper in Washington state.

“We all got going around the same time – Red Hook, Hart’s,
Hale’s,” he said. “When it all opened up we had more microbreweries
than any other state. Then California went hog wild and surpassed
us by far.”

A chemical engineering background gave Kemper the confidence to
experiment with brewing at a time when most would-be homebrewers
could find little information about the craft.

After years of trial and error in his Bainbridge kitchen, Kemper
was ready to go pro. But Bainbridge wasn’t ready for pro beer
brewing.

“We basically couldn’t find a site that was conducive for beer
production,” he said. “The place we had didn’t even have floor
drains.

By 1985, Thomas Kemper was a Poulsbo operation, having moved the
brewery into a former meat packing plant.

Thomas Kemper’s exit from Bainbridge calls to mind the more
recent moves of two island-born coffee roasters: Grounds for Change
and Bainbridge Coffee Roasters. Both couldn’t find adequate
facilities in their price range, and were forced to move to
Suquamish and Poulsbo to thrive.

Kemper left the brewery in 1989, shortly before it was purchased
by Kalama-based Hart’s and folded into what would eventually become
Seattle-based Pyramid Breweries. The Thomas Kemper Soda Co.
remained separate for a time before joining with Pyramid, which
eventually sold it to a Portland investment company.

Kemper hit the road, working as a consultant and helping to
start several breweries in Seattle, Portland, Denver, Philadelphia,
Washington D.C. and several other U.S. cities. He also helped
establish a brewery in Monterrey, Mexico and two breweries in
Turkey.

He recently returned to Washington to start his own brewpub and
eatery in downtown Bellingham.Chuckanut
Brewery and Kitchen, which opened earlier this year, offers six
different brews and a menu that borrows from his travels in Mexico
and Turkey.